Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by John Cole| 41 Comments
This post is in: Sports
I hear someone not named Long will go third.
And while I am at it- GO PENS! Amazing game last night.
*** Update ***
I gotta say, I like the pace of the new draft, but am I the only one out there who thinks you should pick offensive linemen in the first round? Defense is such a team concept these days with the blitzes and coverage packages, and you pick d players later on. O linement and franchise players in the early rounds.
This post is in: Election 2008, Democratic Stupidity
I see several blog posts about this Eleanor Clift piece, in which Clift claims there will be hell to pay should Clinton eventually win then Presidency. Let me be clear about this:
Hillary. Can. Not. Win.
She can’t. She can’t even win the nomination in most scenarios here on planet earth. And should a backroom deal happen awarding her the nomination while trailing in the popular vote, trailing in pledged delegates, and trailing in, well, everything, the party and Hillary will be mortally wounded. People can pretend all they want that the party will sew itself right back together should the nomination be handed to Clinton. It will not.
So all together now- Hillary can not win. You don’t have to worry about vengeance.
I guess it is a testament to the power of Hillary that people keep role-playing in this little fantasy, because I saw Tony Snow and Gloria Borger sitting around gushing about how Hillary is doing this and how Hillary is doing and all sorts of other pointless babbling, when finally Jack Cafferty, also pushed to the brink of madness, had to stop the charade:
BORGER: Well, and that’s the smart answer for him. It’s the answer he’s going to give throughout the campaign. But I do still think that Barack Obama’s kind of a cool candidate. I think of him as kind of F.M. radio, kind of that sort of soft music. And maybe he needs a little more A.M. in him, you know, a little more rat-a-tat- tat, this is what I stand for, this is what I’m going to do for you, these are my headlines on the hour. Because that’s what Hillary Clinton is doing. And that seems to be connecting.
CAFFERTY: Excuse me, if I could just offer — he’s winning.
Stop the nonsense. Please.
*** Update ***
More on the media nonsense here. Unless the mainstream media are all super-delegates, this is just silliness. Sure, they want the race to continue on- it is sexy and exciting and you don’t have to deal with issues like, well, the war and the economy, but it changes nothing.
*** Update ***
For the love of GOD, no more debates. The next debate I can stomach will have to be in the fall.
by Tim F| 11 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Some more games that might make me buy a Nintendo (a few via commenters in an earlier thread):
Wii Polo
Mario Curling
Wii Bearbaiting
Wii Pottery
Wii Breakdancing
Wii Interpretive Dance
Leisure Suit Wii
Me, I’m going to enjoy the great spring weather. Chat about whatever until I get back.
by Tim F| 7 Comments
Yoicks. Last Sunday the NYT reported that TV defense analysts have undisclosed ties to the Pentagon. Despite the major media mostly ignoring the story the Pentagon announced this Friday that they will stop these private briefings effective immediately. Even given the media’s overall pass on the story, someone still seems a bit worried about it.
The Pentagon announced on Friday that it was suspending its briefings for retired military officers who often appear as military analysts on television and radio programs.
[…] A Pentagon spokesman said the decision to halt the briefings, which was first reported on Friday by Stars and Stripes, was made by Robert Hastings, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.The decision came amid criticism and questions from members of Congress.
Now where will these lobbyists and consultants get their talking points on Iran? Bogus sound bites can have a short shelf life; if all the surrogates start freelancing there could be chaos. But heck, where there’s a will there’s a way.
by Tim F| 25 Comments
This post is in: Media, Republican Stupidity
In his debut as a CNN commentator, former White House press secretary Tony Snow says it’s unfair for John McCain to criticize Bush’s handling of Katrina, and suggests that Dick Cheney could be a big political asset. This seems like right-wing hackery so egregious as to be counterproductive to the cause.
This is even better than I expected. If Snow doesn’t get the message soon his loyalty to the old boss will be a pain in the ass to Republicans trying to get out from under the president’s loser shadow.
God I hope for a panel discussion on Katrina.
***Update***
And why not some Keith Olbermann-style Special Commentaries? Sample topics: privatizing Social Security, Terri Schiavo.
by Tim F| 61 Comments
This post is in: War, General Stupidity
Via Drum, Admiral Mike Mullen:
Mullen said the U.S. government will not take any option off the table in responding to the Iranian threat. But speaking to reporters today, Mullen repeatedly made clear that he preferred dealing with the problem through diplomatic or financial pressure rather than a military strike.
Still, Mullen said the military had plans to respond to a variety of potential incidents involving Iran….”I have reserve capability in our Air Force and Navy,” Mullen said. “It would be a mistake to think we are out of combat capability.”
That’s great. America can take all comers, as long as they only challenge us in the air or more than 200 km from shore (those sunburn antiship missiles are a bitch). That’s barely any different from our capability before George H.W.’s idiot kid broke the Army, as long as you don’t count fighting on land. Now we just wait for al Qaeda to field a blue water Navy.
As far as Iran goes, the idea that “all options are on the table” is transparently stupid. Threatening Persia with ground forces is plainly not on the table. In fact pretty much nothing is on the table other than strategic bombing, or strategic bombing plus first use of nukes. Otherwise, uh…we could knock a bunch of satellites out of orbit and hope that some of them fall on Iran. I guess there’s always the option of paying exile groups to assassinate Khamenei with an exploding cigar Koran. I’d recommend stronger sanctions but let’s face it, the world is a bit short of light sweet crude at the moment, Russia has no compunctions about thumbing their nose at our complaints (Putin actually seems enjoy it), and Russia has nukes. Plus our 150k troops in Iraq become hostages whenever the bombs start to fall (compare our resupply/evac routes with Shiite turf some time).
It would be nice if guys like Mullen just admitted that “the table” doesn’t have much on it except bad options and worse, and and his boss has no-one but himself to blame.
***
Speaking of great things that should happen but won’t, it would be spiff for you guys to buy me a Wii and successfully lobby Nintendo to publish Wii Squash already. That game would effing rock.
by Tim F| 16 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
There’s something indescribably meta about promoting this game on a blog. Don’t you wish that it came with a multiplayer mode? Oh wait, it does.
Discuss.